


An Ineffable Dance

by Sk3tch



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Dancing, First Kiss, Gift Fic, Happy Ending, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Old guilt, The shop is FULL of PINE TREES okay, bickerflirting, its not explicitly said, kind of, old photographs, the gavotte
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sk3tch/pseuds/Sk3tch
Summary: They've been dancing around each other and their feelings for nearly 6000 years. It's about time they finally take a chance, and dance together.Figuratively and literally.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59
Collections: Promptposal





	An Ineffable Dance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tiny_Dragongirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiny_Dragongirl/gifts).



> *in my best Patrick Stump voice* Hey! um. so...uh it's, it's a dance you know and, uhhh wanted to know if you wanted to uh... dance? 
> 
> AHH!! My Prom fic for the lovely [Tiny_Dragongirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiny_Dragongirl)!!! I hope you like it!

“Okay, but really angel, the Gavotte? I still don’t understand that one. Of all the dances available, why did you learn the Gavotte?” Crowley’s lips curled into a questioning purse as he rolled his head to look at the angel. Exasperated by now, Aziraphale shut his eyes with a controlled sigh, and extended his hand to take back the blurry black and white photograph that had spurred Crowley’s comment.

They were cleaning out one of Aziraphale’s personal bookshelves in the back room in order to make space for newer, older books the angel was looking to add to his collection.They had been back here nearly all day working on it. Well, Crowley supposed Aziraphale was working on it, cleaning out his overloaded and frankly miracled-to-hold-that-much-weight, bookshelf stuffed with miscellaneous things while Crowley was playing online uno on his phone... unfortunately for the other players in the game, as he ‘somehow’ kept ending up with a near-full hand of wild cards and draw four’s. 

Crowley might not be a direct agent of Hell anymore, but he still had plenty of mischief to spread. 

When Bigshotty23 started flinging curses in the chat after the round ended, with a whopping 57 cards in their hand thanks to Crowley, the demon had set his phone aside with a contented sigh from his job well done and decided a break was in order. 

Searching for something to direct his focus at now that a 40 year old man was raging at him instead of the other players trying to have fun, he didn’t need to go far. Right next to him on a small table, Aziraphale had placed a stack of aged photos and letters, and all Crowley had to do was pick up the topmost photograph from the pile. It had certainly caught his attention. He looked up from where his eyes had fallen back down on the photo and saw the angel was still waiting for it to be returned.

He handed it back to the angel, and Aziraphale gave Crowley a small smile before sinking down next to him on the sofa, also studying the photo of himself and several gentlemen all with varying degrees of facial hair sitting on crushed velvet under a chandelier. A little note on the bottom of the page, Crowley noted, read Portland Place — 1888, followed by faded, mostly illegible names presumably of the gentlemen gathered. 

“I suppose it didn’t have to be the Gavotte, this was just the first place I found that welcomed me so warmly.” Crowley snorted and Aziraphale shot him a look before continuing, “There’s a lot of love in dancing Crowley, and I think that’s what won me over,” Aziraphale said in a soft tone, not looking up. Crowley watched as Aziraphale ran a thumb over the edge of the photo and sighed before placing it back onto the stack, staring at it from a distance instead as he gently wrung his hands. 

“Love…” Crowley drawled, dubious that love had much of anything to do with dancing. At least, he thought, not in the way he had always done it. The way most of Hell did it. “Dunno how ‘love’ exactly translates to dancing Angel.” From the side of his eye, he saw Aziraphale gape, apparently perplexed by what Crowley had said.

“Crowley, of course there’s love in dancing! There is love in everything dear boy.” 

“Even a house of ill repute?” He said, unable to help himself and turned to face the angel, “Because I bet there’s some kind of ‘dancing’ going on in those, but I doubt its love.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Aziraphale clucked his tongue, looking keenly away from him as a light pink dusting rose on his cheeks. Crowley chuckled lightly at his reaction, before leaning back into the sofa and draping his arms over the top of it. 

Aziraphale, though giving off his best ‘offended’ vibes, made no move to get up, opting to continue looking pointedly away from him. After a while, Crowley softened, and asked again in a more, he shuddered, kindly manner.

“Really though, why? It couldn’t possibly all be for the ‘love’ of it, or the open arms,” he said, sliding his glasses off his nose, and pocketing them, giving Aziraphale his full, rapt attention. “You’re an angel, you can find those things anywhere.” The angel in question turned to glance at him and smiled when he saw the demon’s eyes were uncovered, letting his own celestial-built walls down too.

“Honestly, you’re probably right. But, there wasn’t so much in the way of entertainment back then Crowley, not like there is now anyway. And besides,” he says, voice lowering slightly, “in the spirit of candour, there isn’t much fun to be had when you aren’t around, either. One has to keep busy.” He blinked a few times rapidly, before finding a spot on the floor that seemed to hold much more intrigue than Crowley, but the demon didn’t call him on it. How could he?

Even after everything that had happened, Apocalypse especially, Crowley was amazed Aziraphale still got so rueful about _that_. After how many times he told Aziraphale not to fret over it, that the bastard still continued to brood over his involvement in Crowley’s decision to take a 100 year nap this long after the fact. 

Crowley let out a small sigh, and itched to take Aziraphale’s hand in his, rub circles into the skin and soothe the unneeded guilt. Or to take the silly angel by the face and snog him until he forgot all about anything but the present. But he couldn’t do those things, not right now, not yet. He was trying to be better for the angel, to go slower and let Aziraphale set the pace instead. He wanted to be whatever Aziraphale needed, as he had striven to be in the past, but in a better way now.

And he thought he was making progress.

They had held hands on the way back from Tadfield, after all, but as soon as they reached Mayfair the grip had gone slack and dissolved completely, much like Crowley’s inner resolve to ask for something more once they got back to his flat. Not much more, mind, but more. For starters, maybe a hug. And if that had led up to a confirmation that what he’d felt for millennia wasn’t one sided, he’d have taken that too.

But being the cowardly demon he was, that hadn’t happened, and they each sat there in his flat miserably, until the tension was just too much for Crowley to pretend to ignore anymore and he had excused himself to go to bed. 

In the morning, things felt less tense, but definitely changed from what their arrangement had been for the last 6000 years. It wasn’t anything said aloud, frustratingly enough, but Crowley could feel it, the change like amped up static in the air between them. Things kept under the surface, so close to bubbling over. And it wasn’t just because they had switched corporations.

After treating him to the best offerings the cafe on the corner had to offer, or rather, eating the best offerings Aziraphale recommended while in the angel’s body as the epicure watched, they had walked together back to the bookshop before splitting ways to act their parts. If their fingers brushed multiple times along the way, reminding each of their shared grip from the night before, neither of them mentioned it, or moved to put space between them. 

And that had been that. Enough of something more, Crowley thought, at the time. They could talk about it later.

Of course, then the whole ordeal of them being kidnapped, facing death, and all that jazz had happened, so there hadn’t been ANY time to talk. About what had changed, or about what hadn’t. Everything was frozen, tabled, for a time when they weren’t in peril. Which, things had been fairly well the last few weeks, and Crowley was optimistic it might be coming soon. He yearned for it to come soon, as he had soon realized, a simple brush of fingers had not been enough.

Although with the way Aziraphale went about things... Crowley gazed at the other who shook his own head and glanced back at him with those damn beautiful eyes that always held too many expressions, Crowley was glad he was a patient demon. 

“But,” Aziraphale started saying when Crowley met his eyes and he remembered what they were talking about, “I will maintain love is a large influence when it comes to dance.” Crowley gave a noncommittal sigh, not quite convinced, but was willing to let the case drop. If he didn’t, he might start treading into areas he couldn’t safely navigate without giving too much of himself away. The ‘L’ word had already been said multiple times already, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d say it again without the right context and scare the angel off. 

He picked up his phone with a practiced shrug and pulled up his gaming app to wreak more havoc, figuring Aziraphale would want to get back to his task now that Crowley was quietly disengaging again. 

“Besides,” Aziraphale said as Crowley started pressing keys, shrugging into his own composed nonchalance and patting the demon’s knee before getting up, “it made me... well, it sounds silly now, but it made me feel closer to you.” He smiled sweetly before turning his back on Crowley to carry on with his work, completely missing how the demon had a total system shutdown in a record 2.35 seconds.

“Hrrk, euughn.” Crowley cleared his throat and let his phone fall out of his grip, “The _Gavotte_ reminded you of me?” He had seen videos of the Gavotte, had searched it on Youtube without fail as soon as Aziraphale let it slip one drunken evening that he ‘could very much dance, thank you, they just didn’t do the one he learned anymore’. 

Crowley had gone on to laugh his arse off at all the videos of men hopping delicately from foot to foot, prancing almost, and continued laughing until a freshly sobered angel kicked him out. Since Aziraphale’s ire over the situation had continued weeks after the fact, Crowley eventually dropped the subject, not caring much about the matter anyway, more in it just to rile the other. 

But being banned from the shop hadn’t been worth the trouble. Crowley made a note that Aziraphale was touchy when it came to his dancing, and threw everything concerning the Gavotte to the back of his head. But now… now he was getting new information and it was important.

“In a way,” Aziraphale smiled over his shoulder, perhaps not missing the way Crowley had reacted after all, “I thought one day I might get to do it...with you. I’ve always admired the way you dance you know, such fluid control over your form, and seeing as it’s a couples dance… Ah, but that’s,” his eyes flicked to the floor and then back at Crowley’s quickly before he took a large breath in and smiled a bit too tightly as he turned around again, “unimportant.”

Unimportant, unimportant? Aziraphale just admitted to admiring the way Crowley danced and that he always wanted to dance _with him_? And not just dance with him, but dance a couples dance with him, and Aziraphale thought that was unimportant?

Crowley didn’t remember sliding off the sofa, or walking over to Aziraphale, but when the angel turned around he was suddenly within arm’s reach, and oh how he wanted to shorten it even further. Aziraphale jumped at the sudden proximity and began to sputter something, but Crowley cut him off.

“It’s not! Unimportant, that is. It’s not unimportant. I uh, would like that, I think. I mean, if you still wanted...” Aziraphale shut his mouth, and instead of unintelligible squabble, his lips formed into a tight disbelieving frown. Eyes darted back and forth between Crowley’s manically, before a tongue darted out to wet his lips for a reply.

“It’s really not necessary Crowley, it was a silly thing anyway. I mean, it’s also quite out of style, not very cool,” he said and Crowley shrugged.

“Your waistcoat is also out of style Aziraphale, but you make that work, so I’m sure you could easily get me to like this too. _Please_ ,” he tacked on, knowing how easily Aziraphale caved when the demon used the so-called ‘magic word’ to ask for something, “I would love it if you taught me angel. Teach me to Gavotte?” His face softened as he watched Crowley’s, and when he talked next it was barely a whisper.

“You’d... really want to learn it? This isn’t just something for a, a laugh?” Mentally, Crowley punched his past self in the face, wishing he was better at reading Aziraphale not for the first time.

“If you’re teaching, of course.” He shrugged off his jacket and threw it behind him onto the couch, and started rolling up his shirt sleeves to show how serious and invested he was. When he finished, he looked up and saw Aziraphale’s eyes flicking between him and his arms and the books in his own hands he’d only just picked up as if on a loop. If Crowley were to guess, the angel hadn’t expected Crowley to react this way and was overwhelmed.

“Oh dear, r-right now?”

Crowley sucked in a breath between his teeth and let his shoulders roll back in practiced nonchalance. He gave a single nod and a toothy smile, and felt Aziraphale studying every visible part of him, looking for a lie or any ill intent, but as wily as Crowley could be with pranks and such, he found he actually, entirely meant his request. He did want this, more than he probably should, and he hoped that was abundantly clear to the other. 

Another minute passed before finally, Aziraphale gave a single nod of his own and he set the stack of books he’d picked up back from where they’d come and straightened his waistcoat.

“Alright then.” He cleared his throat, and after a mild fidget, motioned them into the middle of the shop. “Okay, first things first.” He slipped off his coat as well and hung it on a convenient, newly manifested hook on a nearby shelf. He then stood in the center of the space with light streaming down over him and waited for Crowley to join. Once Crowley did, he let out a breath, and nodded, easily slipping into the role of teacher.

“Here we go, start as such and then,” he stood straight, and after giving a countdown slid one leg out, to then slide back to center with a quick tap. He looked at Crowley with an expectant twinkle in his eyes and Crowley repeated the move. Aziraphale nodded and then did it again, this time adding a quick toe tap with his other foot. He paused and looked to Crowley, but he had already begun to replicate the move.

They kept on this way, Aziraphale going move by move, slowing down when it got more complicated, with the demon repeating his every step. Crowley kept up with him for the most part, and after they had done some skipping, and linking arms, and _high kicks,_ they faced each other and Aziraphale leaned in, like he was going to-

Abruptly, he turned away, fidgeting with his hands and leaving Crowley with a weighted feeling pulling down his chest and wide eyes trailing after the other. 

“Right then, great!” Aziraphale babbled and rubbed his hands together, “You seem to have picked it up swimmingly!” He opened his mouth to say something else, but then shut it, instead snapping his fingers to make a tempoed number begin playing over the gramophone. 

He gave one of his small, reserved smiles, like when they were out dining and the waiter came back to ask if they were going to order dessert on a day where the angel had talked with Gabriel and the whole holy boyband earlier. Those dicks had a penchant for making Aziraphale feel like he shouldn’t do certain things, or moreso, that he should feel ashamed for doing things that weren’t necessary by their standards. If Crowley had his way, he wouldn’t have missed when he spit his hellfire at the lot of them. He hated how they made Aziraphale think he needed to be any other way than what he was.

But even though this smile was one of his least favorites of Aziraphale’s, it still belonged to Aziraphale and thus Crowley cherished it. It was the one that said he didn’t think he should have whatever he was going to ask for, but was still going to ask for it anyway. 

Crowley would never, ever deny that smile, long as he existed.

“Would you be interested in trying it with some music, dear?” Aziraphale looked at Crowley through his eyelashes, and Crowley nearly fell over at the desire visible in them. He was nodding so fast, if he were human he might have given himself whiplash. The angel’s lips morphed seamlessly into Crowley’s favorite full toothed grin and he mirrored it subconsciously. 

“I’d like that Aziraphale.” The angel beamed, honest to God herself _beamed_ , sending little sprays of sunshine bouncing around the room and making the lump inside Crowley’s chest feel like it could respond in kind, if he still had any angelic voodoo juice left in him. He didn’t, but Aziraphale didn’t appear put out by his lack of reciprocated fireworks, so he figured it was all fine.

They got into the starting position, and after Aziraphale counted the beats for a few measures, he nodded and they began dancing together. And honestly… it was nice.

Of course Crowley didn’t get it perfectly correct the first round, but by the fifth time they danced the same steps with the music rolling in the background, their moves were each flawless and he wondered why they hadn’t done this sooner. Both of them were laughing, _laughing_ , and ribbing each other over increasingly ridiculous things. It was similar in feeling to when they drank, but even less guarded. It was a comfortable vulnerability, and there was no worry about doing the wrong thing.

But as the twelfth round started, Crowley was disappointed to hear the record begin its slow descent in tone. Well, he supposed all good things came to an end sooner or later. 

He could tell Aziraphale knew the end was nigh as well, as he, like Crowley, had become quieter in his merriment and was reigning his kicks and hops in to match the fading tune. The worst part, Crowley decided as he battled his urge to snap the record back to the beginning so they didn’t have to stop, was the slow death of Aziraphale’s joy in the moment and the creeping nerves that came hinting in around him. Crowley sighed, unable to stop himself from sparing Aziraphale the pain and awkwardness of ending the fun.

“Okay,” Crowley said, his kicks slowing to match the smaller ones Aziraphale took, “so, how do we end it? A dance this formal must have an ending.” Aziraphale looked up from Crowley’s feet and bit his lip as an odd look overtook his face.

“Oh, it does, but, do you know Crowley,” Aziraphale said slowly, taking a step closer to the demon, “I’ve never actually danced the Gavotte to its end before? Not with a partner.”

“What? Why?” Crowley’s brow furrowed as he mirrored Aziraphale and they were only two feet apart.

“Well, dear boy,” he took another step so Crowley did too, and they each bowed to the other “it ends in a very particular way.” Another step brought them within inches and Crowley’s hands came up of their own accord, snaking around Aziraphale’s torso as they kept stepping, the moves so slight now, they were merely swaying in place. 

“How’s that?” Crowley asked, voice anxiously low as the angel’s arms came to wrap around his middle as well.

“It’s a bit… unusual.” 

“Oh? Well, by all means, lay it on me. Big unusual fan, me.” He thought the joke would be easy going enough, but the stricken shock that came over Aziraphale’s face almost looked like he’d been slapped by Crowley. He opened his mouth to back peddle, to say anything to get that look off of his beautiful angel’s face, when in the blink of an eye Aziraphale was kissing him, and kissing him deeply, and everything became background noise.

A small noise escaped out of the back of his throat and Aziraphale backed up almost immediately. Crowley instantly mourned the warmth he took with him. They stared at each other for a solid ten seconds before they each tried to speak at the same time. 

“Oh! I apologize, I didn’t-”

“What the bloody fuck-”

They stopped and eyed each other warily. One looking gorgeously ashamed, and the other so at a loss for words he didn’t know what to do but to bumble on.

“....was that?”

Crowley saw Aziraphale swallow hard after a minute, before answering his question. As if steeling himself. Crowley didn’t know what he would have to steel himself against, unless it was something big. And since they didn’t have any kind of big secrets, other than the one they both knew and didn’t talk about, he wasn’t sure what the angel might say. But, if the dark blush and eyes that already had an escape plan in place were any indication, Crowley felt himself begin to sweat.

“The Gavotte, or La danse Classique… is also, occasionally, known as the kissing dance, because of how it’s traditionally ended.” Crowley gave him a blank stare before taking a step toward him to close the gap between them. 

“You kissed me.” Aziraphale had a lovely shade of crimson spreading over his cheeks, and when he spoke he had an adorable little shake to his voice.

“It’s, that’s how you end the dance. Kissing your partner.”

“Partner.” Crowley repeated, taking another step to be close enough to put his hands on Aziraphale’s shoulders, wondering how he could hear anything Aziraphale was saying over the rush of blood pounding in his head.

“Yes,” he breathed out as Crowley’s hands ran down his sides to land on his hips, “Partner. It’s a couples dance.”

“You said that.”

“Yes. Yes, I did, didn’t I?” He looked like he was ready to bolt, and Crowley, unwilling to have that, decided to bugger everything. All of that waiting for Aziraphale to make a move, trying to be a better demon bullshit, all of it. 

There was no reason for him to wait anymore, no reason not to share how he felt. He had never really been all that patient anyway, had he? Crowley gazed at his angel, his dance partner, his _partner_ , and decided he was done dancing around the subject any longer.

Aziraphale in the meantime had opened his mouth, no doubt to break down the simple meaning of the final move. To assure it wasn’t something more than they both knew it was. He might have gone on forever, babbling away to distract them both; he probably had the whole etymology of the name and a complete history of how the dance originated already on the tip of his tongue, but it was impossible for him to do any of that, once Crowley had invaded his space and connected their mouths once more. 

Fire, sparks, and electricity exploded behind his eyes at the contact, and Crowley felt Aziraphale fall into the kiss with him, arms returning to hold him tight. They stayed that way for some time, sharing breaths and electrical touches, mapping each other out as the scratchings of the music player added white noise. When they finally separated, each were breathing quickly and staring with unrestrained want at the other. A smile curled Crowley’s lips and he found his voice first, shaky at first, but growing confident.

“I think,” he said through a gasp similar in tone to the one coming from Aziraphale’s parted lips, “I can see why you like the Gavotte now.” Aziraphale rolled his eyes and pulled him back down for another sweet kiss.

“I told you it was a good dance.”

**Author's Note:**

> Did anyone (yes probably everyone) know the Gavotte was a couples dance that ended in a kiss? Because nobody told me! When I found that out I knew some dancing had to happen. And... it IS prom so.. XD Anyway, I hope you enjoy your gift!!! 
> 
> Also... have this [Gavotte version](https://youtu.be/G0HLWw4K4y0) as a little extra treat that I found when doing a bit of research. It kills me every time I watch it. 
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading and as always, if you wanna chat hit me up on the tumbles!


End file.
